Drywall has become a dominant material in the construction of building interiors. In particular, building interiors generally have vertical stud walls that support pre-formed drywall panels attached to the stud walls. Joints between the adjacent drywall panels are taped and finished with joint compound before painting or wall papering. Many drywall finishing tools have been developed over the years to facilitate taping and finishing with joint compound.
When working with drywall finishing tools, substantial amounts of time are spent mixing joint compound, filling application tools with joint compound and cleaning the tools. U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,925, entitled “Drywall Joint Compound Pump Workstation”, issued Mar. 9, 1999 to the inventors of this application, discloses a drywall joint compound pump workstation that is designed to accommodate these needs, as well as other needs present at drywall construction work sites. The workstation disclosed in the Denkins et al '925 patent effectively mixes and pumps joint compound for drywall finishing tools. The pump workstation has a series of quickly interchangeable attachments and is extremely versatile. It is also designed to facilitate rinsing and cleaning of the workstation and drywall finishing tools at the work site. In its commercial embodiment, the pump workstation includes a rather large supply reservoir having an open top and a closed bottom for mixing and holding a supply of joint compound. A gravity fed pump is attached to the bottom of the supply reservoir. A transport tube is connected to the pump, and an outlet of the transport tube is positioned in the vicinity of the open top of the supply reservoir. The top of the transport tube is preferably provided with a quick-disconnect fitting so that one of several attachments can be attached to the outlet of the transport tube to facilitate the task at hand. For example, a goose neck attachment is attached to the transport tube in order to mix and recirculate joint compound from the supply reservoir through the pump and the transport tube back into the supply reservoir. Various filling adapters are also provided at the top of the transport tube in order to fill various drywall tools. In addition, a threaded nipple attachment is provided along with a water hose to facilitate on site rinsing and cleaning.
While the drywall joint compound pump workstation disclosed in Denkins et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,925 has been commercially successful, there remains a need in the art for an improved workstation that has greater versatility and can better accommodate the needs of drywall workers at drywall construction work sites.